The present invention relates to an installation tool for use in enterprise management software (“EMS”) systems and, in particular, to an installation tool that provides a library of prefabricated installation options for the EMS system.
EMS systems are software systems typically designed to manage the operations of some of the largest companies in the world. EMS systems typically are designed for large scale system applications, involving perhaps tens of thousands of users. They are intended to manage most of the business processes that a company finds necessary in its operation, including for example, supply-chain management (“SCM”), customer relationship management (“CRM”), product lifecycle management (“PLM”) and enterprise resource planning (“ERP”), among others. While it can be expected that operations in many business functions are similar from company to company, other business functions are markedly different. Business functions in areas such as supply-chain management and product lifecycle management depend heavily on the industries in which a given company practices and the goods and services that the company provides within those industries. Indeed, business processes even in areas where companies face generic issues, such as human resources, vary from company to company as those companies design business processes to handle their unique needs.
Given the vast differences in the business processes of each company, EMS systems have been developed having a flexible architecture to accommodate them. FIG. 1 provides a simplified block diagram illustrating one such architecture. There, an EMS system 100 is illustrated as including a business logic portion 110 and a settings portions 120. When installed on a customer's system, the business logic 110 executes and interoperates with customer data 130 provided on one or more database systems.
As noted, the EMS system 100 possesses a flexible architecture. The business logic 110 may contain tens of thousands of software modules to perform various incremental functions. These modules may be interrelated with each other in almost limitless ways to define business processes at the customer site. To conform the business logic 110 of an EMS system 100 to the business processes of a given customer, installers write settings information 120 identifying exactly how the various modules are to operate, how they interact with each other and how they interact with the customer's data 130. The act of defining the settings information is one of customization—it requires software consultants that have expertise in the architecture of the business logic software 110 and also in the needs of the customer. Defining the settings often is performed using a project-based approach, requiring years of planning, design, drafting and testing before the business logic 110 software may be installed for use by a particular customer.
Commercial deployment of EMS systems 100 has involved software publishers, installers and, of course, customers. The software publisher creates the business logic software 110 with its attendant flexibility. When a customer purchases the EMS software 100 for installation, the customer typically contracts with an installer, defines its requirements and requests the installer to design the settings 120 that will cause the business logic 110 to operate in accordance with the customer's desired business processes. In practice, some installers develop expertise in particular commercial markets (e.g., the automotive industry, pharmaceutical industries, banking). These installers may have insights into their market of expertise that permit them to assist their customers to define desired business processes. Because the process of designing settings 120 and installing the EMS system 100 on a customer platform is an act of customizing the EMS system 100 for a particular application, this process is expensive.
Based on the high implementation cost traditionally associated with EMS systems, EMS systems traditionally have been considered inappropriate for use by small or mid-sized business. These entities traditionally have been unwilling to accept the high installation costs associated with EMS systems. The inventors have identified a need in the art, however, for a tool that can reduce the cost of installation of an EMS system.